Arden, the author of the first pamphlet written on Port Phillip, in describing Melbourne in 1838, asserts:—
"That it presented more the appearance of the villages he had seen in the interior of India—a nucleus of huts embosomed in forest foliage, and peering at itself in the river stream that laved the thresholds of its tenements—than any collection of buildings formed by European hands. It was at the time possessed of two wooden houses, serving the purposes of hotels or inns to the settlers who frequented the little town upon the occasion of their bringing their wool produce to the port, or new arrivals before they committed themselves to the trials and privations of the bush. A small square wooden building, with an old ship's bell suspended from a most defamatory looking, gallows-like structure, fulfilled the duty of church or chapel to the various religious denominations, whence, however, the solemn voice of prayer and praise, sounding through the yet wild country, had an effect the most interesting and impressive... Two or three shops, forming a general emporium for every description of immediately useful articles, although exceedingly inferior, opened their wares to the public; whilst a branch establishment of a Van Diemen's bank flourished on its monetary exchanges, discounts, and circulation." Visiting Sydney, and returning after a six months' absence, Arden expressed surprise at the general improvement and rapid progress of Melbourne, its numerous buildings, some even two and three stories, the hotels transformed into handsome and convenient inns, and the line of streets cleared, marked, and in some parts under a process of partial Macadamization. He must have much exaggerated, or erred unconsciously, for, when I first saw Melbourne, three years after, there was not a single three-storied house in the town; and, though the streets were marked, and several of them cleared, but not of stumps, the "process of Macadamization" was even then of the most rudimentary kind. The first three-storied houses erected in Melbourne were, one on the east side of Queen Street, between Collins and Little Flinders Streets, long occupied by Dr. O'Mullane, a well-known physician, and the other occupied by Mr. George James, wine and spirit merchant on the south side of Collins Street, between Elizabeth and Swanston Streets.
As the erection of a more substantial class of houses commenced, bricks grew into demand, and first supplies were procured from Launceston; but brickmaking in Melbourne was started on the swampy flat, between the river and Emerald Hill, though our first local industry obtained the reverse of protection from the Government. This was in 1838, and a tax of £10 per annum was levied for the occupation of the land, £5 for the right to erect a hut, and, worse still, a further sum of £2 10s. was charged for the use of the clay! Lime-burning followed, for which payment in tithe kind was insisted upon, the Government taking unto itself one bushel for every ten produced. Such excessive charges necessarily caused much dissatisfaction, and led to a small stampede of the working hands to Adelaide and Valparaiso. There were greater extremes of weather in the old than in the modern times—more sudden transitions from heat to cold, and from wet to dry, more baking hot winds, and swamping floods. In the beginning of the summer of 1838, there was such a drought as has not been since equalled, and apprehensions were entertained, encouraged by the predictions of the Aborigines, that the whitefellow's cattle and the whitefellow himself would be exterminated through dearth of feed and water. The people were then, with the exception of meat, mainly dependent for provisions upon the coasting trade established between Port Phillip, Sydney, and Van Diemen's Land. Large stocks were not kept in the shanty-stores of Melbourne, the coasting voyages were often protracted, and an anticipated shortening of rations was a cause of general alarm. But out of this drought an amusing prayer difficulty arose, and the colonists were placed in a curiousfix, from which their piety had some difficulty in extricating them. Hot and dry weather prevailed to such an alarming degree throughout the northern portion of New South Wales, that the Government issued a proclamation directing that the 2nd November should be observed as a day of general fast and humiliation in all parts of the colony, and the clergy were requested to offer divine worship in their respective churches. When the time arrived for the general abstinence and devotion, though it was as dry as ever in Sydney, there was such a superabundance of rain in Port Phillip that the sheep-shearing was considerably retarded, and individual prayers were strong and urgent that theflood-gatesof the heavens might be for a time closed. The official proclamation was of course pro forma obeyed by the Ministers of some of the denominations, but the public were unanimous on one point, that wet or dry they should have a holiday; and such it was observed, religiously or irreligiously, the latter preponderating, for the half-dozen tavern
